Tony and Katie Gonzalez

Tony and his wife, Katie, have been frequent contributors and supporters of the Hand Drawn Map Association. In 2008, when the HDMA was just getting started, Tony wrote an article about our endeavors while interning at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. This fall Katie generously donated some of her expertly crafted hand-made books for what turned out to be one of our most popular contests ever. If the HDMA had a list of boosters, they'd be right at the top.¹ At any rate, Tony recently sent an envelope full of maps to share, and I finally got around to scanning them all in.

****For the sake of convenience, all locations are in Virginia and all quoted text is written by Tony.****

Maps 1a+1b: "These maps show how to get from Guadalajara, a Mexican restaurant in Charlottesville, to Free Union. Each Wednesday, the Air Raid Juggling Club zip over to The Guad for margaritas after juggling club. These maps show the route to the home of one of the jugglers. The first is phony—it shows a tunnel, a troll, a magic fairy land and the Free Union Post Office. The second is the true map, but it doesn't come close to conveying how winding and exciting (in the dark) Free Union Road is."

Map 2: Drawn by Matt Lovelady, Tony believes this map was to a party in the Waynesboro area.

Maps 3+4: Tony sent us two maps he drew but couldn't quite remember what locations they referenced. I've shared them on our Unidentified Maps blog because it's been a long time since a mystery map has passed through our inbox.

Map 5: "This map I drew shows a fairly complex rural drive I took with my wife and two friends. It started with a drive from Waynesboro to Luray, where we visited the Luray Caverns, just west of Shenandoah National Park. Then we took a long, winding ride east to Louisa County to see a professional juggling show in a small community center. We rode Interstate 64 back home. An inset map of the Louisa area is included at the bottom."

Map 6: Where Skyline Drive meets the Blue Ridge Parkway

Map 7: "This map I drew guided me to a fatal truck rollover in a rural area near Staunton. You can read the story, which captures a little bit about the life of the young rapper who died. I also wrote about what it was like getting to the crash and how I wrote the story."

Map 8: Journalism Awards Dinner in Roanoke, Virginia

Map 9: "A woman came to the newsroom one day asking for access to our (onerous) article archives becasuse she wanted to compile stories about her parents' old restaurant in Waynesboro. The restaurant was unique in that is was a 'pay what it is worth to you' place. No prices on the menu. She, Ramona Gordon, sketched out this diagram of the inside of the riverside dine called Hamburger Frank's." Read the story and check out this audio slideshow.

Map 10: Another mysterious, unidentified map.

Map 11: "Drawn by Chase Purdy at my request, this map shows where the South River flooded (non-seriously) and its proximity to a woman who years ago saw a terrible flood take her home away." Check out Chase's story of the flood.

Map 12: "I drew these for my wife to explain three holes on a disc golf course. The map on the top of the sheet shows how I threw a disc that veered right and into a tree—the disc somehow bounced and continued forward in the correct direction, eventually skidding down a street and very near to the hole."

Map 13: Katie and Tony found this map inside an old atlas. It just so happens to be the same atlas Katie used to make her books for our HDMA contest last year.